The agricultural industry is undergoing advancements in growing methodology and technology, in both the indoor and outdoor areas of farming and crop production. The concept of growing more plants in a healthy fashion in increasingly smaller amounts of space, both vertically and horizontally, is seeing growing importance commercially. Further, the commercial cultivation of plants using hydroponic, aquaponic, and aeroponic methods is well known and established, and as the development of growing such plants in smaller spaces continues, there is a need for improved physical means of growing plants in these smaller spaces while providing the plants with precisely controlled, favorable levels of nutrients, water, light and air to provide for a healthy, robust plant growth from these methods.
Prior designs of devices for such vertical and/or horizontal growing configurations have substantial disadvantages in the specific area of creating maximum functional and practical plant density in the allotted growing space; as well as in the practical manner of planting and harvesting of plants, and in the area of containing and/or reducing costs of operations specifically in the areas of labor costs and material costs to perform and achieve the same or similar levels of plant production and/or yield.
Existing designs of devices and systems prior to the present invention for vertically positioned plant cultivation using aeroponics, hydroponics, and/or aquaponics all generally have in place common functional methods for the storage of liquid nutrient solution, and the delivery of liquid nutrient solution, and the return of excess or a portion thereof of said nutrient solution to a common reservoir, most particularly in a re-circulating system, and such designs are well known.
These common design functions also may provide for the aeration of the nutrient solution for the delivery of proper oxygen supply to the root systems of the plants under cultivation, and such designs are well known.
Prior designs of vertical devices which house the plants for their life cycle period of growth from sprouted stage to harvesting stage have distinct disadvantages in the areas of functionality from a commercial point of view, operational costs, ease of use, elimination of potential heavy lifting in daily operation of the device, and in the area of plant density for any given growing space allotted.
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide a grow panel enclosure that maximizes plant density for a given growing area and streamlines operational functions for ease of use by an operator. Further objects of the present invention include elimination of the above referenced disadvantages, specifically, it exists in the improvement by way of a reduction in labor and time required to plant sprouted plants in the device and a reduction in time required to harvest mature plants which are ready for removal so the next cycle of plants can be put in place, without movement or disassembly of the vertical or horizontal growing enclosure unit. The grow panel enclosure is for vertical or horizontal plant cultivation and provides improvements in all areas discussed above and provides operational cost reductions along with increased plant production capacity and overall yield capacity, particularly from the qualified point of view of commercial producers.
Further, the invention will help in the reduction of costs associated with consumable materials used in the cultivation process including the elimination of the use of net pots, a commonly used plastic container which holds sprouted and growing plants during their life cycle in a soil-less or reduced-soil cultivation environment. The invention allows for generally higher sustainable and realistic plant growing densities in a vertical or horizontal configuration, in an easily operated manner, and is thus capable of lowering overall operating costs associated with a given plant yield of plants when compared to other known devices which feature lower plant densities incumbent to their respective design(s) and amount of area attributable to such devices. This means this device will allow for, in a comparable controlled growing space, with comparable indicated elements of the cultivation of plants, including acceptable application of, but not limited to, nutrients, water, light, oxygen and carbon dioxide; a higher profit to the commercial grower/producer through higher yields of plants in a similar space horizontally and vertically, all comparable factors essential to such yields being held the same or similar, such as but perhaps not limited to: available and proper spectrum of light for photosynthesis, nutrient levels available at the plant root zone, oxygen levels to the plant root zone, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere surrounding the plants under cultivation, atmospheric air temperature, atmospheric air humidity levels, and atmospheric air circulation in the growing environment.